Five firms win Swiss tender to install 100 rapid charge stations

Dutch electric vehicle charging specialist Fastned is among five winners of a tender to create 100 new fast charging stations along Swiss motorways.

The stations will house 175kW rapid chargers, which will be upgradable to 350kW, accelerating the time it takes to recharge EV batteries.

Fastned already has 88 recharging stations in the Netherlands and Germany, and is currently expanding into Belgium and the UK as it bids to create a pan-European charging network. The company aims to deliver an EV charge in just 20 minutes.

The Switzerland contract is for 30 years and included five packages of 20 sites, totaling 100 locations. The other tender winners were all Swiss: Gottardo Fastcharge, Groupe e, Primeo Energie / Alpiq E-Mobility and SOCAR Energy Switzerland. They will each have to install five recharging stations within a year, and all 20 within a decade.

The Office fédéral des routes (OFROU), which conducted the tender, said it will fund the upfront cost of upgrading the grid at each site to deliver sufficient electricity for the fast chargers. The winners of the tenders will then have to reimburse these costs.

Michiel Langezaal, Fastned CEO, said, "We are happy that the Swiss Federal Authority is making key locations available for charging infrastructure through a public tender procedure. This allows us to invest in quality charging infrastructure on high traffic locations. Adding these locations to our network provides more freedom to electric drivers.”